1210 
^he RURAL N E W- YORKER 
Octobor 20. Till 7 
The Thrashing Day 
By Millard Davis 
come 
this 
prob- 
The Farm is Mobilized 
Soldiers of Peace.— It has 
to mind a great many times 
past harvest season that there is 
ably not one of our soldiers in France 
who has worked hardei’ or given more 
thought to his woidi tlian has the 
average farmer of this country on his 
farm. And this has not been done for 
purely selfish reasou.s—this hard work 
has been gladly taken up and finished for 
love of this country of our.s—knowing 
that it would help. Yes, and for love of 
the home and of the farm and of farming 
itself. 
The Weapons of the Farji.— If this 
account of a day’s work may be called 
a story it is a story of as great a battle 
as was ever fought in Flanders; just as 
great in its far-reaching results. For if 
we fight not our battles on the farm— 
and win, sometimes—there,will be no ac¬ 
count of battles in Flanders. Battles 
take soldiers, and soldiers must have 
food. So when we plow and sow and 
reap and thrash here in this great United 
States of America we are doing our mile 
and our might to win the battles in 
Europe. They are fought hei-e first. 
The Battle— -We will skip the 
preliminary skirmishe.s of idowing, har¬ 
rowing, fertilizing, drilling in the seed, 
praying for rain or to have it stop 
rai ng, harvesting, and the hurry to get 
the grain in without welting, and come 
to the day -v hen the grain is ready to 
be thra.shed. Let us call the farm owner 
the General, say the General of the Al¬ 
lied Forces. The Spirit of Bad Luck 
probably commands the other side; and 
it takes some maneuvering for the Gen¬ 
eral to keep things moving smoothly a 
good share of the time. 
The Start.— The Gene;.-'.! and his reg¬ 
ular army of one man commands a bat¬ 
tlefield of 200 acres, abo-.t 90 of which 
are used for battle purpos<‘S, so that even 
when there is no question of a bout 
with Old Thrasher, there is always 
something doing around the lines. Rye 
in the mow and wheat in small stacks 
in the field are to be thrashed. The 
General and his staff arise at 4.45 A. M. 
and warm up for the fray in milking 14 
cows, feeding and cleanijig five horses, 
feeding the calf, and then the pigs. I.ike 
Dewey at Manila he calls a halt for 
’ \ ■ ... 
breakfast. After this necessary delay 
the milk is dispatched to the railroad 
for use by other ar ies, the horses are 
watered and harnessed, and the foi’ces 
are lined up. 
Orders of the Day.— Reports from 
the outposts show that the following or¬ 
ders have been faithfully carried out. 
That the thrasher and engine be set up 
the day before, that three teams be 
hitched and waiting and that a total of 
nine men be in attendance; ice water 
handy, plenty of empty bags for the 
grain, a pla in the mow for the straw 
and another on the floor for the chaff. 
Everything is ready. The Major of the 
Engineers takes a last lo.ik over the en¬ 
gine and machine, the General from his 
position back of the machines gives the 
oi-ders to “Let-’er-go-o” and the battle 
has begun. 
The Conflict.— Explosions of gaso¬ 
line artillery are heard in the engine and 
these are quickly followed by the hum of 
the machine gun \ heels of the thrash¬ 
er. The regiments have taken their 
positions. Tavo occupy the extreme high 
flank of the haymow to tliiow uown the 
bundles. Two more occupy extremely 
dangerous positions on top of the thrash¬ 
er, one to catch the bundles as they 
come, cut the bauds and hand them to 
the feeder, who thrusts them into the 
whirling c.vlinder of the machine. Guard¬ 
ing the right flank is the measurer— 
the war correspondent, as it were, who 
from time to time announces the results 
of the battle in number of bushels 
thrashed. In the dust and chaff back of 
the machine stand the rear guard of 
two, one to take the straw away and 
the other to attend to th chaff. On 
the left high flank up somewhere near 
the peak of the baim are arrayed the 
two who place the straw in the mow. 
to bind and the loose sti'siw piles out of 
the end of the machine in a cloud and 
no soldier of the legion could mow away 
that great grist of untied straw. Re¬ 
treat is .sounded, no. not retreat, for the 
engine is not stopped—until the Chief 
gets the binder working. Then we are 
at it again until the bags are filled with 
grain. Operations are here halted and 
file army, from moAvs, machine tops and 
all the flanks, quickly assembles, wiping 
the sweat and dust of battle from brows 
as they come, to discu.ss the situation 
whether the grain is plump or light, can 
Eli “keep by,” was it dusty back there, 
where is the water anyhow—they never 
drank Avater in the olden days—and 
assigned differently. Maybe an extra 
man or tAA’o must be obtained, a little 
tangle here must be sti-aightened out. 
the belt inns off when a bunch of Avet 
AA'heat hits the cylinder, 
come. Night draws nigh, 
of finishing tonight comes 
has its tasks. Some who 
adjoining farms exchanging 
chores to do. But a heartv 
Delays Avill 
The question 
up. TomorrOAV 
are here from 
work haA-e 
“aye” from 
question and 
The Army Troops to the House and Scrubs Itself” 
The Chief Engineer Feeder is really in 
command, and sets the imce. The men 
in the moAV must keep him in bunches 
to feed the machine. The roar guard must 
keep the struAV and chaff aAvay. The 
fiercest part of the fray is not reached 
at first. It is gradually Avorked or 
Avarmed up to. Everybiuly is expect¬ 
ed to “keep by.” No quarter is asked 
and none is given. Fasti'r and faster 
come the bunches, faster and faster come 
the explosions in the engine to “keep 
by,” and faster goes the straAv back in- 
Pacific Coast Engineers Training in Washington—^They are now in France 
to the moAv. The battle is jioav at its 
height, and one hundred bunches of rye 
are put through in five minutes, yielding 
seven bushels of grain. This is really no 
sham battle. The explosions in the gas 
engine, the war of the big machine 
(Avhich thrashes the grain from the 
straAV, separates it from the chaff, cleans 
it and ties the straAV into bundles), the 
clouds of dust and chaff, the sAveat of 
battle, are all real here. 
The Enemy Advances. — But here 
comes the enemy, the Spirit of Bad Luck 
(or of bad management) and the result 
of his Avork is that the binder refuses 
as if stopped by an unseen force. The 
army troops to the house and scrubs it¬ 
self aAvhile, and then concludes to 
leave part of the d ist on auyw'ay, as 
more will come in the afternoon—and 
dinner is Avaiting. Dinner for the 
thrashers! Here command is turned over 
to the House-Marshal, and everything 
moves like clockwork. Each man has 
his position assigned; the munitions are 
all on the table—blessing is asked—and 
every man does his duty. 
Varied Assignments.— After dinner 
the work is varied as the Avheat must be 
hauled from the field and the forces are 
each one detennines the 
load after load comes on. 
The End of the Day.—I t is .so dark 
in the barn the men in the mow cannot 
see the bundles, but must feel for them. 
Ro many have come before to ex.actly 
the .same place that this is no hard task, 
and fcAV slip back. At last the end is in 
sight, the last small load is run up by 
hand and put through. The engine and 
machine are stopped, the men craAvl down 
from their posts, dirty and tired, but 
glad the Avork is done. It is just eight 
o’clock of a mid-August evening. The 
battle has been AA’on against considerable 
odds. It looks like rain. The General 
assembles the army, calls the roll, gives 
orders for supper. Then, Avith his staff 
the horses are put out, attended to, 
POAA’S are put in, milked by lantern light 
and at nine o’clock of this August day 
the remnant of this force marches in 
and sits doAA’u to supper Avith the last 
run of AA’heat in bags out under the 
stars, with rain threatening. Well, a 
soldier in France may have carried those 
bags up into the granary, bnt the Gen¬ 
eral is only a green farmer, so he just 
trusted to luck to keep them dry till 
morning, and Avith his staff marched off 
to bed—at the end of a perfect day on 
a fanii. 
Yes, some of the battles fought on 
the farm are of as great importance as 
some of the battles fought in Flanders. 
Avhat not else. Then it is a drink of 
Avatcr, each man to a bag of grain, and 
a line forms from the machine to the 
bin in the granary. When this is done 
all hands are called to their posts to 
give “it” another round. 
The Armistice.—A nd then comes din¬ 
ner. This is the real event of the day. 
Neither the General nor the Chief gave 
orders to stop, and hoAv the magic Avord 
Avas conveyed from the kitchen to the 
barn passeth understanding. But the 
neAvs has arrived, and all effort ceases 
A Letter from Canada 
From the trenches have already come 
expressions of delight on receiving The 
R. N.-Y. there. The boy Avrote that he 
and his chums (agriculturi.sts all) had 
read every Avord, and all agreed that it 
Avas a “bully good paper,” and that if 
they ever got home again, nothing short 
of a “farm for theirs” again, and the 
lines of The R. N.-Y. to run it on. The 
paper Avas passed on doAvn the line, and 
more than a hundred felloAvs read the 
issues to his oavu knoAvledge. He writes 
that it Avas as food to the stai'A’ing to 
get in touch Avith clean soil again—soil 
that Avas not blood-soaked and ground 
out of semblance of God’s earth. He 
said no one has eA’er sent them agricul¬ 
tural paiiers, and hosts of them Avere 
fanners at home, and, “Oh, Avasn’t it 
good to get hold of a farm paper, and 
such a tip-top one!” 
AVe Avomen of my set of friends ax*e re¬ 
joiced over your article on “Ink Patriot¬ 
ism,” and yours is the only paper that 
has risen to defend us women from the 
reams of advice Ave have received on 
economy and food conservation from 
armchair cooks and veranda housekeep¬ 
ers, giving advice on these and kindi-ed 
subjects, and succeeding in raising the 
Avrath and scorn of every skilled and 
competent houscAvife. Latterly, hoAvever, 
we have come to pass this advice by in 
silent contempt, unless some peculiarly 
idiotic piece of advice rouses us to 
laughter—and Ave read it aloud to an 
accompaniment of giggles. Come to think 
of it, these Avould-be housekeepers are 
benefactors after all, in that they proA'ide 
us Avith something to laugh at in this 
sorroAV-stricken land. 
Yours is the only paper so far to ad- 
A’ise men to economize in giA’ing up to¬ 
bacco, or any other masculine extra- 
Amgance. In our country it is the Avom- 
en who are the real economists, parti¬ 
cularly the farmers’ AAuves, yet to read 
the advice given one would suppose them 
(Continued on page 1218.) 
